The CPL Gang was a group of comic book enthusiasts who published a number of fanzines in the mid-1970s, including Contemporary Pictorial Literature (CPL) and Charlton Bullseye . Founded by Roger Stern and Bob Layton, the CPL Gang eventually included Roger Slifer, Duffy Vohland, Tony Isabella, Don Maitz, Michael Uslan, Steven Grant, and John Byrne, all of whom later became comics professionals. [1]
Layton and Stern began publishing the CPL fanzine out of Layton's Indianapolis apartment. [2] Stern recalls that "CPL started out as Bob's sale catalog. Bob was drawing the covers and including little reviews written by some of his customers". [3]
By issue #5, CPL "... turned into a small 'zine with a catalog insert, and [Stern] started writing short articles for it. [He] eventually became an editor of sorts". [3] CPL featured a mix of articles, interviews, columns, art, and comics strips. In addition to CPL Gang members, contributors included established industry professionals like Gil Kane, Alex Toth, Paul Gulacy, Mike Vosburg, Dan Adkins, P. Craig Russell, and Joe Sinnott. Rog-2000, the John Byrne-created CPL "mascot", went on to become a character in the Charlton Comics universe.
CPL rapidly became a popular fan publication, and led to Layton and Stern forming an alliance with Charlton Comics to produce and publish a one-shot called Charlton Portfolio (actually CPL #9/10) in 1974, which included the unpublished sixth issue of Blue Beetle vol. 5 (1967 series).
Twelve issues of CPL were published. An issue #13 was promised, but was never published.
The success of Charlton Portfolio convinced Charlton of the merits of a "fan" publication. During the mid-1970s, both Marvel and DC were publishing in-house fan publications ( F.O.O.M. and The Amazing World of DC Comics respectively), and Charlton wished to make inroads into the superhero market, as well as "establish a fan presence". [2]
Charlton gave Layton and Stern "access to unpublished material from their vaults by the likes of Steve Ditko, Jeff Jones and a host of others" [2] for use in Charlton Bullseye , which published five issues from 1975–1976.
Layton's association with Charlton (and the company's production manager Bill Pearson) in turn led to him becoming acquainted with the legendary Wally Wood, with whom he apprenticed. [4] This apprenticeship led to work for Charlton (on anthology titles, but not working from the Charlton offices), Marvel Comics and DC Comics, while still publishing fanzines. [2] Along with Bill Pearson's Wonderful Publishing Company, the CPL Gang co-published issue #10 of the Wally Wood-founded witzend comics anthology in 1976.
By 1976, Layton, Stern, and most of the other members were full-fledged comics professionals, and the CPL Gang disbanded to pursue their burgeoning careers.
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born American writer and artist of superhero comics. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major superheroes; with noted work on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four. Byrne also facilitated the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics' Superman franchise, the first issue of which featured comics' first variant cover. Coming into the comics profession as penciller, inker, letterer and writer on his earliest work, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four. During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He scripted the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing. In 2015, Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton Publications, which published magazines, puzzle books and, briefly, books. It had its own distribution company.
Roger Allen Slifer was an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and television producer who co-created the character Lobo for DC Comics. Among the many comic-book series for which he wrote was DC's Omega Men for a run in the 1980s.
Roger Stern is an American comic book author and novelist.
Bob Layton is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for his work on Marvel Comics titles such as Iron Man and Hercules, and for co-founding Valiant Comics with Jim Shooter.
witzend, published on an irregular schedule spanning decades, is an underground comic showcasing contributions by comic book professionals, leading illustrators and new artists. witzend was launched in 1966 by the writer-artist Wallace Wood, who handed the reins to Bill Pearson from 1968 to 1985. The title was printed in lower-case.
William Pearson, known professionally as Bill Pearson, is an American novelist, publisher, editor, artist, comic book scripter and letterer, notable as the editor-publisher of his own graphic story publication, witzend.
E-Man is a comic-book character: a superhero created by writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton for the American company Charlton Comics in 1973. Though the character's original series was short-lived, the lightly humorous hero has become a cult classic occasionally revived by different independent comics publishers. The character was originally owned by Charlton but was eventually transferred to its creators.
Rog-2000 is a fictional robot that was the first professional creation of comic book artist-writer John Byrne. Rog-2000 serves as the mascot of Byrne Robotics.
The Alley Award was an American annual series of comic book fan awards, first presented in 1962 for comics published in 1961. Officially organized under the aegis of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences, the award shared close ties with the fanzine Alter Ego magazine. The Alley is the first known comic book fan award.
Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon is a two-issue comic book series that represents one of the earliest independent comics. The first issue was self-published by prominent writer-artist Wally Wood in 1969, with a second issue published by CPL Gang Publications in 1976.
Roger McKenzie is an American comic book writer best known for his work on Daredevil with Frank Miller.
Charlton Bullseye may refer to:
The Charton Bullseye was a fanzine published from 1975-76 by the CPL Gang highlighting Charlton Comics. It was a large format publication, with color covers on card stock and black & white interiors. Charton Bullseye published several previously unpublished Charlton superhero and adventure stories, along with articles on Charlton comics, news, reviews, pinups, and more.
Doomsday + 1 was an American post-apocalyptic comic-book series published by Charlton Comics in the 1970s.
Notable events of 1967 in comics. See also List of years in comics.
Richard Edward "Grass" Green was an African American cartoonist notable for being the first black participant in both the 1960s fan art movement and the 1970s underground comics movement. In the 1960s, Green's Harvey Kurtzman-like zany, action-packed, humorous comics parodies appeared in numerous fanzines. His "outrageous" 1970s and 1980s underground work used searing humor to expose America's racism and bigotry.
Sanho Kim is a South Korean comic book artist, considered the first artist working in a manhwa style to be published regularly in the United States. The bulk of Kim's American work was for Charlton Comics' horror comics, as well as the Kung fu title House of Yang.
The Amazing World of DC Comics was DC Comics' self-produced fan magazine of the mid-1970s. Running 17 issues, the fanzine featured DC characters and their creators, and was exclusively available through mail order. Primarily text articles, with occasional strips and comics features, Amazing World offered a great deal of insight into Bronze Age DC corporate and creative culture.
Dennis Janke is an American comic book artist who was active in the industry from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, primarily as an inker. He is most well known for his work on the DC Comics character Superman, particularly his nine-year run as inker on Superman: The Man of Steel.